NEW ZEALAND’S GOT TALENT
The All Blacks learned the hard way in 2011 that it is a massive risk to be so reliant on just one first-five.
Their World Cup campaign was famously thrown into chaos when chief play-maker Daniel Carter was ruled out of the tournament before the last pool game.
It was incredibly bad luck that their next two first-fives – Colin Slade and Aaron Cruden – were also injured in successive games, but really the moment Carter was ruled out was the moment that changed everything.
Because Carter was their everything. He was the man on whom so much depended. Not only was he truly world class, there was daylight between him and Slade.
Carter had 70-plus caps coming into the tournament and was widely recognised as the best No 10 on the planet with many believing he was the best there had ever been.
Slade, on the other hand, had made his debut off the bench in September 2010 and then missed selection for the end of year tour.
He only picked up a couple more caps before the tournament and came into it with limited exposure to genuinely difficult situations.
The over-reliance on Carter was a result of the pressure the All Blacks were under after failing at the 2007 World Cup.
They needed to restore public confidence in 2008 which meant Carter had to be on the field for most of each test.
His understudy at the 2007 World Cup, Nick Evans had headed overseas so the All Blacks didn’t have
